Post-Blog

B"H

Dearest Blog Readers,

It is official, this post is post-blog. There won't be a poem and the photograph is a combination of shots from yesterday and today. This project has been one of the wildest rides we have ever taken and we thank you from the bottoms of our hearts for taking it with us.

A little about us when we're not blogging, today just as two ordinary citizens, Eric took over 170 photographs and Jackie, wrote 6 poems which changed and grew as we went about on adventures. Without a deadline our fingers still dash across the keyboard (but without anxiety) and our batteries dying won't destroy the world; if the internet chooses to be temperamental we won't be as tempted to curse the heavens above for taunting us so. The comments and support we have received in the past 24 hours and the past 365 days have been overwhelming and life changing.

We hope you have seen enough to have a favorite post, enough that the images are stuck in your mind, enough that words of your own blossom upon your tongues, and maybe occasionally you remember a phrase.

From the mind of the Poet: Writing on a single moment (trapped in the lenses of a camera), has drawn out my appreciation for the little things in life. The way the beach marks your trail, by inviting footprints into the sand it holds, or the joy of dancing as though nothing else in the world matters. Single moments barely exist in life, for they are linked to a chain of events before and after, so closely that our memories of them are never completely clear. Taking the time to love that truth and push it to its limits has been an extraordinary experience.

From the mind of the Photographer: : Grabbing my camera as I head out the door, my brain automatically goes into “story mode”. Walking down the street, everything I see suddenly has a story. That bird to my left is courting the one on the power lines. The dog across the street is walking his human, trying to get her to run and be healthier. The squirrel running around under the acorn tree is hunting for food to last through the winter. Upon the return to my computer, my stop-motion stories are fixed up and sent off to my poet to be told.

Thank you each from the bottoms of our hearts, to those of you in our home communities, and to those of you across oceans. Our art is the most we can give you, and in receiving it you have parts of us.

With Peace,

Jackie & Eric

Day 365

She was in love with the whole world

He was trying to find the world and saw her

The wind in her hair, the way she twirled

Free visions that began to stir

Dreams were drenched that wonder year

In sounds that only spoke in color

Side by side there, they knew no fear

Delighting in shaking the rule they were under

And so it was they were caught in an array of tales

That were not planned in any way at all

Filling the wind of their childish sails

Slowly daring to break down the wall

They made beautiful mistakes in the town

That leaked in tears across the pages of time

Started by wicked joys that pulled the stars down

Turning every moment into the perfect rhyme

He watched her with the eyes of awe, no words to speak

She lived the only way she knew, in love with the world, not a person

The day turned into many a sunshine bleached week

In those days the creativity had only just begun

So he went about capturing the moon

Just that she may reveal its strange light

All they said was with the essence of a tune

One that darkened day and illumined night

Seasons waxed and waned in time with growing

Sunflowers once green as emeralds began to droop

Less was given space, and they stopped knowing

Once inspiring moments could be found on loop

But the golden days returned in fields of hope

That flung words into the sky of freedom

Stringing beads, words and places upon the rope

That lasso-ed the wonders of their kingdom

And now the photographer with the poet at his side

Is pulling forward the messages of rhythmic deeds

Together they fade into the horizon, as the ocean’s tide

Destined to leave a healthier ground for inspiration’s seeds

Day 352 - The Typewriter

Here it all begins

The lines and verses; the triumphs and sins

They cross the page in ink that runs in my veins

Until on the page it forms shapely stains

Here it is carefully placed

Upon ivory pages: so many that will go to waste

So many that cannot contain the breaths

That while making us live now - in halting - bring our deaths

Here it is and here it will go

Dancing off to places we can hardly know

Until we land there in the majesty

That teaches us so simply, how to be

Day 341 - Mundane Danger

We are in great danger of living

Ordinary lives without a moment's glance

At all that surrounds us as miraculous

For each and every moment is, if we wish it to be

The sun exposing each inch of the earth

Into life, raw and undefined

The smoke billowing from a fire for us

Keeping you and I cozy despite the storm

Even the rushing way we wave goodbye to it all

From the speeding simplicity of an automobile

We are in great danger of living ordinary lives

For we never believe in the extraordinary

Day 281 - Running for My Life

I am frightened of too few words

When my mind never closes them off

In pretty little boxes

Like factory made sausages

My mother always told me that was school

So I ran off to life instead

And there I became enlightened

From a factory devoid of trust

I have run all this time

To a world where the enlightened speak

And the lost ones may find themselves

Where we may instill just who we are

Into the world around us

I am so frightened of too few words

To capture this essence, we are breathing

We are growing past the white little boxes

Out of packaging that would keep things neat

I am so frightened of too few words

Frightened of missing the wind on my face

That proves I am here and so is the world

So is the plentiful place we call home

So are the people who make it full

Of whatever they share

Of missing these things I am terrified

I am so frightened of too few words

That would not share life with others

Not adequately enough to explain passion

To name love in all its forms and times

Places and havens it has created

And its promises - if only in the memories of lovers - to never lose

Their engraved markings in this blessed place

I am frightened of too few words

Day 272 - This I Believe אַנִי מְאֲמִין

This I believe אַנִי מְאֲמִין

I stand for secrets unseen

Moments that fade to deepest gold

Tales, tugging at pens, to be told

From the heart of a holy place

Without regards of religion or race

Bonds that break such boundaries

Completing the unity in communities

Across the world and all around

The sweet, true, filling sound

Of songs that fly in peace

So that horror shall decrease

As צְדָקָה justice strongly thrives

Echoing הַתִקְוָה the hope of our lives

אָנֹכִי מְאֲמִינָה this I believe

Into our hearts joy we shall weave

________________________________________________________

Author's Note:

The Hebrew found in this poem is placed beside its English equivalent, each time. However for our non-Hebrew speakers/readers I have a placed below direct translations and transliteration. (in transliteration i = ee)

Also note Hebrew is read from left to write, to accommodate this the poem is posted using a center margin. Both the male and female equivalents were used in Hebrew to state unity in the poem.

אַנִי - I (modern Hebrew) ani

אָנֹכִי - I (anceint Hebrew) anochi

מְאֲמִינָה - believe (female) m'a-minah

מְאֲמִין - believe (male) m'a-min

הַתִקְוָה - the hope (הַ proceeding a word means "the") ha-tikvah

צְדָקָה - charity, (from the core of the word justice) tz'dakah

Finally dedicated to Genesis and BIMA at Brandeis 2010 and especially Shimshon, for his Hebrew help.

~The Poet

Day 226 - Days to Deposit

Dedicated to Natalie Steiner

Days to Deposit

All the sunsets have turned gray

Or should, fade into the stone

Everyone sunrise that is out to play

Belongs to this, and this alone

Photographs like secret post cards

Peruse websites and mailbox bins

Poems and words like shards

Tinkle about as life begins

Coins that clatter land better

Than hours of life ever can

Ask time, the old creditor

And she will laugh at man

Yet we seize the moment again

As if sunsets came in a weave

And words only out of the pen

To be written on our heart's sleeve

But they do not deposit

So easily from the soul

So great thoughts we closet

And still call ourselves whole

Day 212 - The Way We've Grown

Dedicated to my extraordinary photographer who has held this blog together while I have been away for the entire month...

The way we've grown so familiar
Yet moved apart at the same time
The way we need no more filler
Only a shot and a rhyme
The way I know what you mean
Even before the thoughts appear
The way that we have been seen
Making it through the year, dear

We seem a little rough nowadays
But the diamond is still there
It is shown in the endless corny ways
We both like to show we care
And though they have been viewing
For quite some time our lives
Nothing goes past our always renewing
And finding ways in which art thrives

Day 202 - Viewing Poetics

If you could echo in the shades of light
The very story that lasted in fingertips
Then the easy going, glowing ethereally bright
Stories of ecstatic joys easily passes through lips
Into waves of wonder and grasses like pools
Which ripple in footprints of moments passing by
Pressed deep in the toes of love hardy fools
With musician's notes upon clouds lost in the sky
And silver chains answering the ageless
In intricate designs of winding, entwining trust
Redefining the existence of the cage-less
In flavors of orange thunder storm clouding rust
Fabrics so fresh with time that refuses to move
In the speed of echoing arches of modernization
That all with an epitome have something to prove
With methods of articulated internalization
That beauty flows in whispers that do not speak
Except to make fewer at one beings gloriously weak

Day 197 - Two Dimensional

Life hangs in the balance of a blue sky
That has no way of mentioning that
What in the end should catch the eye
Is something simple and flat
That two-dimensions can catch it all
If you are willing to heed such a call

The image of a weeping child so lost
The words on the pages of a novel
The pieces of paper representing a cost
The eternal ability of these things to pull
In a powerful, yet simple way
The things it does not take lips to say

Each of us lay flattened against a screen
As vibrant as a green leaf and stem
With many a message to prune and preen
Before we are willing to invite the rest of them
Those who threaten us or so we think
Fully into our lives all the better they sink

Day 178 - Time's Flame Consumes

Completion comes in moments lost

Where mere minutes pay the total cost

One hour means more than you can fathom

Mastered by the reality of a greater sum

Than what matches the endless pages

For eternity lasts in spiraling ages

When counting is meaningless because a word

Is better written and longer lasting than if heard

Cinders remain marked gray and ancient

Flames licked harshly and grew impatient

Yet time outdid the mighty quest for paper

Leaving angry smoke instead of soft vapor

The single white remainder means we go on

Given our crown to be the queen no longer a pawn

That is manipulated shamelessly about

Instead time dares to reform its own doubt

Empowering mere moments to be found

With powerful words strewn upon the ground

Stating old things newly acclaimed

Seemingly complete yet never truly tamed

Day 110 - The New Shot

The New Shot

Today everything captures a picture

For those times when memory seems unsure

Our phones do so much more you see

That is how this shot came to me

Every moment we live day to day

Gives us much more to say

Pictures help to make us feel

Some hurt, while others heal

But each has its very own lesson

Sometimes of friends, others kin

The lens we use is all our own

Featuring the world in our tone

The medium says more than we can

Capturing the very essence of man

Day 50 - Author's Aura

Author's Aura

There is my quiet throne

Surrounded by a loving tone

Of all the energy sent my way

As I sat musing here today

You see the red beginning it all

That is the hope I like best

At least until my gaze will fall

And I will like it as much as the rest

You see the blue that swirls just right?

It helps me sleep sweetly through the night

The hint of life in this scene

Can be found in the glowing green

Then there is the yellow, the sun

It hints that the black is not so deep

Fading green, orange and peace into one

Cries out joyously the time to leap

So when you see me sitting there again

Know that not every path is chosen

The muse just swirls in gentle waves

A quiet smile with each life it saves

Day 47 - The Answer

Today I would like to express a special thanks to Andrea Gibson, (author of "Say Yes" a poem for our age and our lives, our souls and our joys) for her astounding work and Matt Gordon for sharing it with me. With that being said here is today's poem. ~ The Poet

The Answer

Were you looking or did you simply see

How we are growing into humanity

In every breath that we exhale together

We find another shard of forever

If you have the answer than something is not right

Because such wisdom comes from living out of sight

And you are able to gaze through absolutely everything

Pulling in all the notes that before we never dared to sing

The light behind you captivates me

But the shadow is all we ought to dare see

However someone along the line taught me differently

So I view it all with closed eyes magnificently

The truth lies every moment of every day

So many honest things we wish to say

Are hidden beneath brows that too often furrow

Which one would hate to believe might bring us low

Yet in the same brow is every ounce of hope we could ask for

The answer is found stashed away in the hidden store

Which also keeps treasures like glitter and dreams

Bound all together in the perfect package it seems

This package breathes and lives, growing

It is contentedly not all-knowing

It holds only the answers we together might understand

It comes to a glowing finale as the world stands hand in hand

Day 29 - Justice Lies

Justice Lies

Look, there lays Justice so dormant and still

Not at all worried about anyone's will

Even though now it has been said she is missed

I am still just a number on an endless list

That she has ignored for a score or two it seems

Any actual help seems now to only exist in dreams

If you pull hard enough on a set of strong scales

You will find so many tellers spinning tales

After all how often does Honesty stand

To the right of sweet Justice hand in hand?

One would think this a normal occurrence

But it only seems to add in more abhorrence

In the fact that they do nothing for the true goal

They just increasingly digging deeper the hole

Where all the ones who need help the very most

End up, or so Malice and Anger boast

They seem to rule with a much firmer grasping fist

Like the cancerous ulcer or the yellowing cyst

If only the scales that hold Justice would wake

There would be such great steps we could take

But still the dormant and uncaring stances are rampant

Nothing more powerful of Hopes' virtues are sent

So the answer is simple and unjust existence

Still no help for those taking path of resistance

Day 15 - Adventures to Key Places

Adventures to Key Places

Start up the stories that barely manage to last

Soon we will be zooming through streets much too fast

The curving roads are all I wish to see

But alas I am still lacking a key

I think you hid it in your crinkled face smile

You have had the message all this while

Waiting to post and prod and play

Waiting for the dramatic changing day

You put more style and pizazz into this age

Making it seem more daring than a simple turn of a page

In the time it takes me to turn the key

You and I will be living in a fantasy

Did you know that between the blue in your eyes

There is the revealer of another disguise

That lies quiet and still as you sleep

Into my soul the feelings begin to seep

Please share your key and I will give my license

Letting you explore the adventures over the old fence

You have me under some sparkling enchantment

With all the slight signals your hand's touch sent

Start your engines and hold on tight

We are traveling down a road with no end in sight

Day 14 - Capturing Wonders

Capturing Wonders

Look back with joy and see the dancers

We are all in a world of romancers

That brings the core of light to us

On which the camera will focus

A year marks every moment shared

All the people who have sent love and cared

Every phone call that left you breathless

All the things that keep you restless

The lenses is captures me from a thousand miles away

It holds onto all the secrets we need not even say

And from up close in my own place

It captures the endless laughter on my face

This world I have found and where I am living

Is one that astounds me with its giving

Of all the good and songs we can sing along to

It began with the smile of me and you

Looking back we see the message is in each hand

And learning together we all understand

That this year is better than all of the last

That happiness is now and in the past

Shutters click and swirl into perfect formation

Bringing about the brilliant creation

That show how we breathe in and out and live

With every moment that we can give

Keeping my heart full I trek farther along

Remember the tunes to every single song

Skipping and bouncing and dancing all around

Loving each who person who shares with me the profound

That conjures up nights of mysteries and laughter

And moments that form our forever-after

Keep me twirling it is to hard to stop now

And with all this wonder, I would not even know how

Day 11 - Just Tomorrow

Just Tomorrow

Weighty moments have tipped the scales Justice has been blinded once more I fear the time when She fails Leaving the forgotten without a score Alas, the fiend Opinion leaps from left to right Keeping your mind spun in confusion Pretending to support Justice's sight While knowing it is truly abetting delusion Time has passed all concerns with Justice's plight Clock a tick-tocking with no end in sight But now it moves to the center untrue There is now much too much balance in view Bells toll out as sirens and angels battle High in the skies bringing no help to us We are here, down below we struggle and rattle Hoping that again on Earth they will focus Nature laughs cruelly and pulls another stone Numbers of people and lives are once again unknown How can we hope to stop this unrest? When all the old leaders have now confessed They know no more than we the people Not even guided by scripture or steeple

Who could ever imagine this day would come When all they could do was admit their defeat After all the harm they have caused for some Now they say their missions are incomplete? They still have more hurt waiting to file through For damage and hatred they shall go the distance But what of the tragic ones, me and you? Struggling to keep up the positive resistance Is there not some message we can pull from the air To express the need for us all to truly care For every single one and other The whole of humanity like sister and brother Justice someday soon must make a choice Blind faith in the system is now failing For if her blindness prevents her voice Than the discouraged will never stop their flailing The poor and the endlessly hungry They are no worse off than those we reject All need the chance to be free Each human being deserves that respect So take up what it is that you hold with pride Stand up for what is right we wield too much now to hide

Day 6 - Beauty Believer

Dedicated to Simone

Beauty Believer

Messages burnt into parchment so old

With hidden secrets that whisper just right

Forgotten tales that wish to be told

Of the angry and long lasting fight

Fear grows like flames in the hearth

Begging for the redeeming birth

Poetic love letters remain unread

Holding the key to the resolution

They remain within the bark instead

As time grows around, a true infusion

Of the power that love possesses

And the memory of final caresses

The circle burnt just so is an ancient brand

Making the small town's legacy

They had owned the many acres of land

And built the endless shops and famous library

But at the edges burned in the lighter shade

Was a memory that few would not let fade

It was the mark of a small family farm

That catered to those of higher worth

They kept the legacy far from harm

But were naturally of inferior birth

So when the love was made between two

There was not much the families were willing to do

So this was the last mark the lovers dare leave

Within the tree that kept them so safely hid

In a better time they could not believe

So on their memories they closed the lid

And left no other visible traces

Except perhaps the lost looks on their faces

But such stories last long after we die

And even after our children fade away

They are stronger than the word of you and I

And have a great many more things to say

But twisted in tree trunks that out live us all

That is where the final one will begin to fall

It starts with a swift glance and sweet joy

And a dance with skirts just a-twirl

With the interested eye of a young boy

And the smile so kind on the clever girl

Then the young soul comes along all aglow

With nothing but a bright heart to show

And he is then ready to search for beauty

When in his world her light is shining

He finds a story that spurned from duty

Though the language has a way of reminding

Him of the love he holds for his darling

Something so pure, he found in falling

Day 5 - Paths of Promise

Paths of Promise

Find your own way, but please do not follow

There is so much hope in the morrow

For your will can twist the path

Avoid the dark and possible wrath

Down this road lies mystery

In all that you may never see

Yet footprints wash away you know

With every fresh layer of snow

Lost is all the truth found before

When cold dwells and grizzlies snore

Shadows cannot pierce this light

That is found in layers of white

But tire tracks they smear their mark

Curves upon the road so dark

Putting life into the smooth concrete

The rules with which man tried to compete

Which never disappear from this earth

Yet we try to deny them from birth

That which makes the sun shine gold

That which has been around since times of old

It holds that the cat shall proudly walk

And that some birds may try to talk

These things we as humans shall never master

Even if our cars can go faster

Nothing is as brilliant as a proud steed

Or the power held in a single seed

So walk in footsteps made earlier today

Or the road so that you cannot stray

But know that nothing stays just so

Not on a day of pure white snow